Singing Bowl Instrument Making

I am a transgender kiwi who is a beginner at woodcarving. I am currently doing an academic research project into the acoustic qualities of different woods for mallets used to play tibetan singing bowl as a musical instrument.

Taylor Cook is a Melbourne-based woodworker and sound artist exploring the making of handcrafted singing bowl mallets. With a basic background in furniture making and a growing practice in whittling, carving, and woodturning, their work focuses on shaping simple, functional objects with careful attention to material and form.

Working primarily with local and exotic timbers, Taylor experiments with different densities, grain structures, and finishes to create mallets that feel responsive in the hand and bring out a wide range of tones from singing bowls. Each piece is made through an iterative process of making, testing, and refinement.

Their approach combines traditional hand skills with a curiosity for how wood behaves in use, treating each mallet as both a crafted object and a tool for exploring sound.